TV Time Capsule
Each month, Central Illinois' On-Line Broadcast Museum will update views of TV station listings as they appear in either the local publication of TV Guide or regional newspapers. The examples will include the TV station's published listings from central Illinois TV stations with explanations of any points of interest in those listings. PLEASE NOTE: THIS PAGE IS BEST VIEWED ON A FULL SIZE MONITOR. YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SEE THE PAGES ON YOUR PHONE!
The Week of
May 2 - 8, 1959
(Saturday-Friday)
An Explanation
This TV Guide cover, from May 2-8, 1959, was on the front of one of the many TV Guides I inherited from my paternal grandparents. It is significant because the writing on the cover reads, "Keep this book has pretty gray hair in it." The words refer to a picture in the front section of the issue of Barbara Stanwyck, who advised women to relax and enjoy having gray hair.
My grandmother wrote the words on the front of the magazine. She passed away from Alzheimer's in 1967, when she was younger than I am now.
This edition and this page include the listings for Saturday, May 2nd, and Wednesday, May 9th.
Also on a personal note, I was 4 years old at the time of this TV Guide issue, getting ready for kindergarten that Fall. Even at a young age, I was a TV fan. I remember watching lots of daytime TV when I stayed with the grandparents. I was a fan of "As The World Turns," "The Price is Right" (original version), "Concentration," "The Guiding Light," "Search for Tomorrow," "Art Linkletter's House Party" (especially the kids segment), "Sheriff Sid," "Popeye," "Pegwell Pete," "American Bandstand," "The Mickey Mouse Club," and "Jeff's Collie"(syndicated "Lassie" with Tommy Rettig).
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Points of Interest From the Schedule Above
Saturday, May 2, 1959
THERE'S MORE PAGES OF LISTINGS BELOW!
This issue included the TV schedules for stations in several Midwest markets, including the Springfield, Decatur, and Champaign markets, as well as the Quad Cities, Kirksville, MO-Ottumwa, IA, Hannibal, MO-Quincy, IL, Peoria, IL, and St. Louis, MO.
The Peoria market included the heritage stations of WEEK-TV, Channel 43, before changing to Channel 25, WTVH, Channel 19, before its many ownership changes, and call letter changes beginning in the late 1960s. On January 1, 1958, WMBD-TV signed on to complete the three network trifecta.
The Quincy market still exists with two different owners, transmitters, but now, because of the digital transition, nearly 20 years ago, all networks are represented by the stations.
The Quad Cities still hosts WHBF-TV, Channel 4 (CBS), but WOC-TV, which broadcasts from Davenport, IA, is now known as KWQC-TV. It remains an NBC affiliate. WQAD-TV, Channel 8 (ABC), was added in the early to mid-1960s. The story is part of Peoria's Channel 8 debacle of the 1950s.
The Kirksville, MO,-Ottumwa, IA market is unique. It spans two states, south of Des Moines, IA, and north of Columbia, MO. In 1959, WTVO was a CBS primary and secondary NBC affiliate.
By 1959, Decatur's Channel 17, WTVP, had undergone several ownership changes, and there would be a couple more in the future. WICS was still originating from its Leland Hotel studios, and WCIA was both a primary CBS affiliate and a secondary NBC affiliate, but that would change in another year.
Looking at the actual schedule, WICS signed on early Saturday after delaying its sign-on until noon for years. What a great lineup of kids shows on NBC and CBS. ABC had not filled out the daytime schedule, and WTVP didn't sign on until noon with "Uncle Al," a kids' show from Cincinnati that was broadcast on ABC. Meanwhile, WTVH didn't sign on until 3 pm with a kinescope of "Uncle Al."
WCIA broadcast a Millikin University program on acting at 11 am. I would add that KMOX-TV must have owned a video tape recorder, as the cartoon show "Heckle and Jeckle" was broadcast on a one-hour delay.
Many stations would broadcast their "American Bandstand" version in their local markets. WEEK-TV broadcast the "Hi-Fi Club" at Noon for Peoria, hosted by long-time weathercaster Bill Houlihan. WHBF-TV broadcast "TV Tunes" at 12:30 pm, WOC-TV aired "Teen Hop" at 4 pm and 5 pm, WCIA aired "The Hop" with John Coleman.
One show on the schedule is "Circus Boy" which starred future "Monkee" Mickey Dolenz.
Even though WOC-TV is not listed as a secondary ABC affiliate, the station did air some ABC programming, probably via Kinescope on Saturday afternoon, including "Rin Tin Tin" and "Cheyenne." The same was true for WHBF-TV, which aired ABC programming at alternate times, including "Lawman." ABC and the stations arranged not to air ABC shows simultaneously as those aired on another station.
Even though it was the day of the Kentucky Derby, the big Louisville annual event was broadcast on CBS in glorious black-and-white. The only show broadcast in color during the day was "The Perry Como Show" on NBC.
ABC featured music programming for everyone on Saturday night. 6:30 pm brought "Dick Clark," (contemporary music) followed at 7 pm by "Jubilee USA" (with folk and country western music), at 8 pm it was "The Lawrence Welk Dancing Party" (with Big Band music), then at 9 pm it was "Sammy Kaye" (middle of the road music). None of the ABC stations aired a local newscast that evening.
NBC featured "The Perry Como Show" at 7 pm with a music and comedy variety show, followed by westerns "Black Saddle" and "Cimarron City," then at 9:30 pm it was a detective show, "D.A.'s Man." Both WEEK-TV and WICS aired a newscast at the traditional time of 10 pm.
CBS began prime time with the classic courtroom drama "Perry Mason" followed by the western "Wanted Dead or Alive," (starring Steve McQueen). At 8 pm it was a dramatic anthology show "The Face of Danger" (which was a rework of what was previously named "The Playhouse of Stars"), then at 8:30 pm it was back to the westerns with "Have Gun Will Travel" (with Richard Boone), and the classic "Gunsmoke" at 9 pm. CBS ended its network programming at 9:30 pm, leaving it to the local affiliates to fill with syndicated programming.
WCIA at the time was delaying its newscast to avoid going "head to head" with other stations in the market with local news. It was a superb move that positioned the station's news as covering all of central Illinois, while the other stations concentrated on their city of license. Channel 3 would broadcast a local 15-minute newscast at 11 pm. See the listings below when WCIA's evening news broadcast wasn't at 6 pm, but at 6:30 pm, and the traditional 10 pm newstime was delayed until 10:30 pm.
Listings for Wednesday, May 6, 1959
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11th NATAS Emmy Awards (1959) NBC
Here's a rare video, a kinescope of the live broadcast of the 1959 Emmy Awards. The quality of the video/audio is fair, but it gives you an idea of what the broadcast was like. Plus, you can use the TV Guide spotlight above to see if your favorite shows listed won any awards that night.
Click on the image to watch directly from YouTube.
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Points of Interest From the Schedule Above for
Wednesday, May 6, 1959
Frankly, I don't know the background on some of the "educational" programs common to the era's early morning TV. NBC broadcast "Continental Classroom" at 6:30 am, just after sign-on. WCIA as a secondary NBC affiliate broadcast kinescopes of previous "Continental Classroom" broadcasts scheduled at 7 am, just after sign-on.
The "Today" Show aired from 7 am to 9 am, just as it has for over 70 years! CBS tried to achieve equal status with the 15-minute broadcast of the morning "CBS News." At this time, it was anchored by Richard C. Hottelet, the last living member of "The Murrow Boys," referring to Edward R. Murrow. You can hear Richard C. Hottelet's D-Day account from the air and broadcast on CBS Radio on June 4, 1944 by clicking here.
At 815 am, it was "Captain Kangaroo" for the kids, I remember watching that show religiously when I was younger. The first show I saw on my 1958 Phico Predicta Holiday, was "Captain Kangaroo" on WCIA at my great aunt and uncle's house just after they purchased the set. Yes, I still have it!
"Romper Room" was a syndicated concept show in which local stations would produce with their own "teacher" and with local pre-school kids. It was quite an endeavor for those brave stations, but it cemented loyalty from those kids for years to come to those stations. The various what I call "kid panel shows" cultivated a loyalty among those future viewers. Something that doesn't exist today. It's no wonder kids of the 70s and 80s have no attachment to those local stations and aren't attracted to the on-air products from the stations today. That's my rant for the day.
CBS filled the daytime schedule with programming for the local affiliates. With talk shows, travel features, and off-network reruns like "I Love Lucy," leading into a flurry of game shows and daytime dramas (soaps). You'll note the abundance of 15-minute versions of "Search for Tomorrow," and "Guiding Light," probably produced by Proctor and Gamble, you could call it an early version of info-mercials.
NBC took a stab at colorcasting two daytime game shows. They were "Haggis Baggis" with Dennis James and "Truth or Consequences" with Bob Barker. This was a much easier way to sell RCA color TV with the dealers showing customers the pleasing effect of color video. This continued into the 1960s, when NBC broadcasted many live game shows in color.
Other daytime NBC shows included soaps with "Young Dr. Malone," black-and-white game shows "Queen for a Day" and the rural variety show "County Fair" hosted by Burt Parks.
Noon was an early news time for local TV, usually including farm and ag news for us in the Midwest. CBS included a 5-minute national news summary, anchored by Walter Cronkite at this time. That would lead into local news for the CBS affiliates in the smaller markets. Other stations produced a reduced newscast, with some locally produced variety shows, such as "The Bernie Johnson Show" on WICS or "The Charlotte Peters Show" on KSD-TV.
ABC had just entered daytime TV programming with expansion starting from the late afternoon and working its way earlier. At noon, the first network show was "George Hamilton IV," a country music performer, with regular Roy Clark (long before "Hee Haw").
Afternoons on ABC included the soap "Play Your Hunch," and the off network sitcom "Gale Storm Show," quiz show "Who Do You Trust" (starring Johnny Carson), the contempory music dance show "American Bandstand" (with Dick Clark) and "The Mickey Mouse Club."
Afternoons on CBS included music, game shows, audience participation shows, and soaps. At 12:30 pm it was the soap "As the World Turns," country music show "The Jimmy Dean Show," the audience participation show "Art Linkletter's House Party," then game show "The Big Payoff." That was followed by the daytime drama "The Verdict is Yours," "Brighter Day," and "The Edge of Night."
The late afternoons included a few kids' participation shows, syndicated off-network sitcoms, and even movies.
Local news would come up at 6 pm on most stations. For central Illinois, it was on Channel 17, WTVP, Decatur, followed by the ABC newscast anchored by Don Goddard. WICS, Channel 20 had a local cast followed by the NBC newscast with Chet Huntley and David Brinkley.
Others with local news at 6 included KTVI, Channel 2; KMOX-TV, Channel 4; KSD-TV, Channel 5, all St. Louis, along with WMBD-TV, Channel 31; WEEK-TV, Channel 43, Peoria; as well as KHQA, Channel 7; and KTVO, Channel 3 in Ottumwa, IA.
WCIA, though, did something different. Competing with all of the stations in Springfield, Decatur, Danville (WDAN-TV wasn't listed), and the Peoria stations who shared the attention of Bloomington, IL, shifted their news time. Figuring that all of the stations airing local news simultaneously would limit their ability to reach a larger audience, they decided to move their news time to the following half hour, beginning at 6:30 pm, and even later in the evening, to 10:30 pm or even 11 pm. That shift in the news time was evident here in 1959. It wasn't too long after this that CBS forced WCIA to go to the more traditional news time at 6 pm and 10 pm as it cut into the ratings of the network's early prime time shows.
I have detailed the story of "Ozzie and Harriet" on this website, along with the history of WTVP. Through a loophole in the affiliate contract, the ad agency for "Ozzie" allowed them to place their show on a non-affiliate if the local ABC affiliate didn't meet some household number requirement. That's why "Ozzie and Harriet" was not shown on WTVP, Channel 17. However, it was seen on Danville's WDAN-TV, Channel 24. I also explained that on the History of WDAN-TV page on this site.
WTVP filled the "Ozzie and Harriet" slot with a first run syndicated western show "MacKenzie's Raiders" that starred Richard Carlson.
During prime time, most stations aligned with clearing the network schedules affiliated with them. There were some pre-emptions, mainly from the smaller market stations. The late news at 10 was preceded by the ABC national news anchored by John Daly. John Daly also worked for the Goodson-Todman game/quiz show producers and ABC, hosting "What's My Line" on CBS live from New York.
NBC brought color to prime time with the broadcasts of the live game show, " The Price is Right" and the "Milton Berle-Kraft Music Hall." The 1959 Emmy Award broadcast was scheduled for 9 pm - 10:30 pm. It's unknown how long the award show aired or if it fell into the time slot ending at 10:30.
The CBS schedule included "Trackdown," not shown on WCIA. It was replaced by "Colonel Humphrey Flack," a former DuMont sitcom that was then syndicated and starred Alan Mobray. Other than that, the CBS affiliate schedule fell into place.
Jack Parr hosted "Tonight" on NBC, which aired on all NBC affiliates. The other stations' nighttime schedules consisted of syndicated movies or short-length programs.